<p>Thinking about economics as the major, student's preferences are: not too cold, not too hot, not too remote. Parents' preferences are: $$ aid and a good name.</p>
<p>The stats are: 100%tile ACT, 2250 SAT II (3), NMSF, 3.90 unweight GPA with over 10 AP, very competitive HS, good list of E/C including some leadership roles. </p>
<p>Brown is not a High Match unless the kid is a legacy and even then it’s still a reach. Brown loves Vals- is he number one in his class? Also, since most of the schools here are non-merit schools, I’m assuming the parents have worked the online calculators and know how much need based aid they will be getting???</p>
<p>First, none of the Ivies give merit money, so if that’s a consideration, delete all of the Ivies. </p>
<p>Second, what are those ECs with “some leadership roles?” Usually, to get into any of the Ivies you need “beyond the school” recognition of some sort.</p>
<p>The family is of low income so they expect to have excellent need based aid from those reach schools. </p>
<p>They talked to us because our DD got good need based aid and they think their S’s stats are better than our DD’s. I believe this list is developed based on “need based aid” and some sort of ranking of economics department.</p>
<p>I would caution your friend not to put all the eggs in the economics ranking. Many, many students have no idea what an economics major actually entails and wind up bailing after a few tedious intro courses which have large lectures- even at the top schools.</p>
<p>I think your friend has a good list. Can’t go wrong and is sure to get the excellent need based aid if the family fits those parameters. None of the schools are so specialized that if the young man changes his mind about his major, he ends up stuck. </p>
<p>Oddly enough, I would add NYU to the list. Excellent economics dept and they give very generous merit/aid packages to high stats kids, though they are stingy overall in money. The other school is UChicago which others have recommended.</p>
<p>The problem with the OOS schools is unless the young man snags a great merit package from them, getting full need met is difficult. THose merit awards can be very tough to get, harder than getting into HPY. But he has the stats, and he has the back up, so he certainly should give it a go.</p>
<p>There are 11 schools on the list already and I don’t know if they want to add more schools. So, please suggest which one to replace when you suggest a particular school. </p>
<p>COTH, thanks for the tip about OOS and I will pass alone.</p>
<p>Is NCCH UNC-Chapel Hill? If so, and the student is out of state, you might replace that with U.Chicago. That way the student can visit three schools in one trip.</p>
<p>Brown isn’t a high match for anybody whose parents didn’t make a seven figure donation.</p>
<p>This is not a thoughtful list. It seems to be based mostly on prestige, and very little on fit for this particular student. Has this kid already taken Microecon and Macroecon? As MomOfWildChild says, a lot of kids think they want to study economics until they find out what it means. </p>
<p>I’d delete a couple of the prestige schools, and add a couple of schools in the middle that are fits for whatever he actually wants in a school other than prestige and weather. “No colder than Northwestern” doesn’t eliminate a lot of schools.</p>
<p>What’s the kid’s class rank? If it’s not in the top ten percentile, then he’d better have a good story to get in those Ivies.</p>
<p>I believe the kid developed the interest during the Econ AP and got 5 on both the Micro and Macro. He should be with in the top 10%, if not the top 5%. </p>
<p>What are the school in the middle?</p>
<p>So, it is the general feeling that OOS may be an acedamic match but $$ will be very difficult to get?</p>
<p>Would the kid be happy if his only acceptances were</p>
<p>NCCH, UIUC (Match)</p>
<p>State U (Safety)?</p>
<p>If so, I think the list is fine. If not, I think he needs to drop a reach or two and a high match or two in favor of some schools slightly less selective than those.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt? UMich? Tufts (would need to “show interest”)? Holy Cross? Lehigh? Rice? Emory? </p>
<p>I don’t think Cal-Berkeley is a high match for an out-of-stater. Rather a stiff reach.</p>
<p>jmmom is exactly right. This is a list of very selective schools that are hard for anyone to get into, plus three state schools. </p>
<p>This kid needs to figure out where he wants to go to school that is realistic. He and his parents should also consider that if he moved down a notch from Princeton and Stanford, he’d be looking at schools that award merit money. He’d be in line for a lot of it.</p>